Is Sean Dyche Really the Problem at Everton?

Everton’s excruciating loss to Brighton on the opening game of the season unfortunately felt quite familiar. Blues fans are no strangers to witnessing demolition jobs at the hands of teams we should have the capability to compete with.

The second heavy home defeat to the Seagulls in three seasons comes as an untimely reminder that, despite retaining our Premier League status through the tumultuous last 3 years, we still have work to do to prevent relegation from being an ongoing threat.

It is pretty clear from the reaction I saw, paired with my own personal feelings, that the manager Sean Dyche is up for a lot of criticism for the part he played in the weekend’s calamity. It felt a little like Groundhog Day, with the usual suspects returning for more opportunities and once again letting the side down.

Michael Keane was afforded his latest lifeline as cover for the injured Jarrad Branthwaite which incensed fans before the game even kicked off, especially given that he was preferred to new signing Jake O’Brien. 39-year-old Ashley Young proved once again that his best days are beyond him, attracting a red card and creating a selection dilemma for future games at right-back.

Elsewhere, workhorse Abdoulaye Doucouré was preferred over Iliman Ndiaye, who impressed in pre-season but perhaps doesn’t yet have the fitness Dyche is after. Dwight McNeil and Jack Harrison also played most of the game in the same positions they played last season, never really threatening on the pitch, but loanee Jesper Lindstrøm was not seen as a suitable sub.

Dyche’s lack of foresight and common sense in substitutions has been an irritating feature of his tenure as Everton manager. He can have absolutely no excuses for some of his poor decision-making in key moments. I understand having to ease new signings in gradually and resist the urge to subject inexperienced players to baptisms of fire but, as the old saying goes, diamonds are made under pressure.

Youngster Roman Dixon impressed at right-back early in pre-season, as did Jake O’Brien and numerous others. Only Tim Iroegbunam seems to have stamped his authority on the starting eleven, Dyche’s decision with him made significantly easier by the lack of alternatives.

Evertonians know the score – the ‘safe’ options will likely be chosen again for the next game at Tottenham, with Mason Holgate likely covering at right-back and Keane retaining his place in the middle. It’s all too predictable.

All of that said, I’m not going to get carried away with the magnitude and nature of the beating we suffered at the weekend. Sean Dyche teams typically do start quite slow – it took until late September for us to pick up our first win last season and yet, without the PSR points deductions, we’d have finished comfortably mid-table.

We are typically quite reactive as a fanbase – I am a culprit of that just as much as anybody else – and in that respect, we’re no different to any other club. Any individual can go from hero to zero in a flash, we can love something about the club one minute and hate it the next.

Sean Dyche suffered his latest barrage on social media following the Brighton battering which I cannot deny he was mostly at fault for. But a little bit of level-headedness and reason tells us that a managerial replacement probably isn’t the answer to our prayers.

Since David Moyes departed the club in 2013, Everton have had eight permanent managers alongside a handful of temporary replacements. Each of those managers (perhaps with the exception of he who shall not be named) had good spells and bad, but the consequences of constantly rolling the managerial dice are often more significant than the benefits.

After years of incohesive recruitment and varying on-field tactics, our squad became a chaotic mix of individuals all bought for different systems and purposes. The resulting starting elevens were imbalanced, incapable of working together and constantly being on different wavelengths.

While the last few years have been a torrid time for everyone involved with Everton, the one positive we can take is that the squad finally looks like it is forming an identity – tough to beat and hard-working, sprinkled with a bit of flair where we can afford it.

Yes, there’s still a long way to go to achieve that by definition, but the groundwork has been clear to see at times throughout the Dyche reign. I have heard several people say since the weekend that Dyche should be replaced with a more expansive and ambitious manager, but I would be reluctant to run at this stage before we’ve proven we can walk.

The alternative managers mentioned in the opinions above, such as Palace’s Oliver Glasner or Brentford’s Thomas Frank, have inherited solid foundations of football clubs with a visible direction to pick up and adapt to their liking. Any replacement at Everton at the moment would be picking up the pieces of 10 years of failure and living on life support financially and competitively.

Marco Silva provides a great example of what could happen if we went down that route. He got to work in the fallout of Ronald Koeman's messy departure after Sam Allardyce had briefly steadied the ship. It didn't take long for things to go slightly pear-shaped, though, perhaps lucky to keep his job in his first winter in charge of the Blues.

He picked up in the spring but, in a case of second season syndrome, the performances once again declined until his departure. Fast forward 5 years and his Fulham team are now thriving as a relatively comfortable Premier League outfit, a position they've not previously been in for a decade or more.

Dyche has been far from perfect in his time as Everton manager, but he has also done what his predecessors couldn’t by restoring relative stability and unity from the team on the pitch. The Brighton defeat inflicted a dent in that armour, but we’ve already shown the resilience to pull ourselves out of a similar rut last season.

Now is the time to do the same and carry on grafting. Replacing Dyche must happen at some point if we are to challenge for trophies and accolades, but we also have to acknowledge that we simply aren't ready for that yet.

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